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The Coliseum at Richfield, which opened in 1974, replaced the then-decrepit Cleveland Arena. The new arena seated 20,000 for basketball and 18,500 for hockey, and was one of the first indoor arenas to contain luxury boxes.

It also hosted many concerts, with its first event being a concert by Frank Sinatra.

Though a large arena at the time of construction it had only one concourse for both levels, which became crowded during games at which the attendance was anywhere close to capacity. The Coliseum was built in Richfield to draw fans from both of Northeast Ohio's major cities, as nearly 5 million Ohioans lived within less than an hour's drive (in good weather) from the Coliseum. While the arena's location hindered attendance somewhat, nevertheless, the Cavaliers' average attendance was over 18,000 per game each of the last 2 seasons at the Coliseum.

The Coliseum's real drawback was that the luxury suites, which generate much revenue, were at the uppermost level and as such were the worst seats in the house. Once plans for Gund Arena (now Quicken Loans Arena) in downtown Cleveland were announced in 1991, where the suites were much closer to the playing area, the Coliseum became economically obsolete.

After closing on Sept. 1, 199 and lying vacant for five years, the arena was torn down between March 30 and May 21, 1999, and the arena and surrounding parking areas were allowed to be returned to woodland - which worked quite well given that the arena had been built off Interstate 271, which cuts through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richfield_Coliseum

Converting the 100-acre facility back to its natural rural character would require moving 80 acres of asphalt parking and 600,000 gallons of wastewater off the site with no environmental or safety violations. Nearly 200,000 tons of asphalt and stone base was processed on site for recycling. The on-site wastewater treatment plant was deactivated and removed along with the 600,000 gallons of wastewater.http://www.indexc.com/Projects/Coliseum-Demolition